Publication Account
Date 1996
Event ID 1016378
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016378
Another well-preserved stalled cairn, known as Blackhammer, is set on a terrace below the Knowe of Yarso (no. 83). The entrance passage opens from the side of the oblong cairn, but access for the modern visitor is by ladder through the roof. The builders of the tomb created a decorative appearance by setting the stones of the outer wallface slanting to form alternate triangles, and this can still be seen on either side of the entrance. When the passage was sealed for the last time, again stones were set flush with the outer wall and matching the slant of the stones on either side.
The chamber has seven compartments, although at some later date rough stonework has been inserted into the central compartment and four of the dividing slabs are missing. The tomb was excavated in 1936, and the partial remains of one person were found in the western most compartment and those of another in the entrance passage. There were also animal bones, especially sheep, along with pottery, flint tools, part of a bone pin and a stone axe.
To the west are the grass-grown remains of a very long stalled cairn, Knowe of Ramsay (HY 400279), which on excavation proved to contain a chamber divided into fourteen compartments, entered from the south-east end.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Orkney’, (1996).
